Our Blog: The Standard

School newspapers can be daunting, frightening ideas for teachers and administrators. Adults fear irresponsible reporting that proves to be gossip about the school, a staff member, or student. Or there’s the fear that some piece of news in the school paper will catch the attention of the mainstream news media and vans of reporters and cameras will bombard the school. Or there’s a fear that the poor quality of writing will embarrass the school. With the decrease in newspaper readership across the country and limited budgets, it’s easy for schools to decide against continuing to publish a school paper. But…

The National Board certification process is akin to glimpsing into a reflection pool. Looking in, you see the best parts of what is happening in your classroom, your teaching practices and the areas that still need some work. I tell fellow educators that because of this, National Board certification is truly the greatest professional development I can recommend to teachers who want to fine tune their craft and grow to be the best they can be. So upon receiving the news that I officially certified and can put those four coveted letters behind my name – NBCT – I thought…

“The world belongs to those who can imagine it.” – Luis Valdez Teachers hear many voices over the course of a career. We hear our own voices driving us. We hear students’ voices. We hear the voices of the public, sometimes calling us names, and the voices of our colleagues and administrators calling us in many directions at once. We also hear voices echoing from offices at the District or State or farther afield. Luis Valdez, activist, playwright, and director of Teatro Campesino, was a guest lecturer and inspiring voice at a summer course I attended recently. We studied the…

I became a health and fitness teacher because, like any other teacher, I wanted to make a difference in the lives of my students. I wanted to give them the opportunity to learn strategies and skills early in life that would help them to make informed life decisions and remain physically, socially, emotionally and mentally healthy through adulthood. After a few years in the profession I had sat through hours of professional development, attained my Master’s Degree and was becoming more involved in our local union activities, but something was still missing. I lacked the professional confidence to become the…

I can remember the many emotions I felt when I became a newcomer ESL teacher. Excited because I was going to have different languages and countries represented in my classroom. Thrilled because I was going to truly have an ESL teaching experience – which in San Antonio is hard to find. Amazed because friendships were going to blossom, even those once separated by continents. Lastly, I was eager because I was going to be the first ever teacher for several of my 3rd and 4th grade students. With all these emotions, I really hadn’t thought about how I was going…

As a dual educator family, we decided pursuing National Board Certification together was the best way for us to stay committed and support each other through the process. It turned out to be the best decision we could have made! Carol’s Perspective During the month of December, my teammates and I were privileged to participate in a #togetherisbetter challenge initiated by my principal. When it comes to seeking National Board Certification, I can think of no better phrase than that. Together truly is better. When I decided to apply for candidacy, I wanted someone to join me on the journey.…

As a child of the ‘80s, I hold a particular fondness for the classic film series Back to the Future. You know the one: Doc Brown and Marty McFly cruising through time in that sweet plutonium-powered DeLorean. They hop back and forth from the past to the future in an effort to repair the present. When I started my renewal for my National Board certification, it felt a bit like Doc Brown and Marty McFly’s experience. There I was, about eight years later, returning to a process similar to when I first obtained my NBCT: carefully examining my content standards,…

Watching the reactions of teachers on my Twitter feed as they learned whether they had achieved National Board Certification this year brought wonderful memories of my own certification experience. I was in the generation of NBCTs who labored to complete the entire process in a year, and alternately hugged and cursed the blue shipping box. Like other major life events, I remember exactly where I was when I received my notification: dancing in front of a computer at the Internet café during the 2001 National Council of Teachers of English convention. The National Board and the Board Certification process have…

Congratulations on certifying as a National Board Certified Teacher! There is nothing more rewarding than logging into the NBPTS website the day of score release and seeing that congratulations banner. If this is your second, or third attempt, then multiply that feeling by about 1000. You put in the hard work, and now you can call yourself an NBCT! But what now? Back in 2009 when I certified, I assumed that the new letters behind my name would automatically open up opportunities for me as a teacher leader. I thought that leadership positions and the ability to leverage change would…

How does a guy like me get to be named one of the top 50 teachers in the world out of 30,000 applications? I have been asking myself since I was honored by the Global Teacher Prize. It all starts with my wife and a suspended student. Nancy and I were married less than a year. She was teaching. I was going to castings for commercials and movies. She informed me it was fun seeing me on TV, “but, there’s no money. My parents and I think you would make a good teacher.” Luckily, her father was an administrator at…